Why Do We Call it Air Conditioning?

Why do we use the term air conditioner to refer a machine for cooling air, when we use the word heater to describe a mechanism for heating air? The term air conditioning was borrowed from the textile industry, where it referred to filtering and dehumidifying. The first use of this term is in a 1909 paper by Stuart Cramer, called “Recent Developments in Air Conditioning.” This is part of a complete episode.

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